Posted on 03/13/2022 6:58:18 AM PDT by blam
It was Read Across America week, and the second graders in the Hinds County School District in Mississippi were waiting for an administrator to read to them.
The administrator had forgotten it was her turn, said Toby Price, the assistant principal at Gary Road Elementary School in Hinds County, who was in his office at the time. He decided to fill in.
Mr. Price, 46, quickly grabbed a book — “I Need a New Butt!” by Dawn McMillan, one of his children’s favorites — and began reading it to the roughly 240 second graders over Zoom.
Later that day, on March 2, the district superintendent, Delesicia Martin, called him into her office and told him he was on administrative leave, Mr. Price said. He was fired two days later, accused of violating the standards of conduct section of the Mississippi Educator Code of Ethics.
In a letter to Mr. Price, the superintendent called the book “inappropriate.” She particularly took issue with the references to farting in the story and how “the book described butts in various colors, shapes and sizes (example: fireproof, bullet proof, bomb proof).” Ms. Martin called Mr. Price “unprofessional” for having selected the book.
“I expected a write up,” said Mr. Price, who had worked for the district for three years. “I did not expect to get terminated. I cried the entire way home.”
Mr. Price, who has been an educator for 20 years, said he had hired a lawyer and planned to fight the termination before the school board.
Ms. Martin and the five-member school board did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Friday. But Mr. Price’s termination brought swift criticism from children’s authors and PEN America, a free speech organization that fights bans against books.
The book, which was published in 2012, is about a boy who searches for a new butt after he discovered a “crack.”Credit…The cover of “I Need a New Butt.”
In a letter, PEN America said that “in positioning the act of reading a book as a violation of ethics, the district is implying that any educator could be terminated under similar circumstances” — a fear that many teachers are already grappling with after a slew of Republican-led efforts last fall to ban schools from teaching and discussing race, racism and other “divisive concepts.”
On the elementary school’s Facebook page, the grandmother of one of the students at the school posted a news story about Mr. Price’s termination and said she planned to speak on his behalf before the school board and fight to get “his job back.”
“My granddaughter heard him read the book and thought it was hilarious and not at all inappropriate!” the grandmother wrote.
Mr. Price said that was the reaction from students after he read the book. He recalled going into the hallway and being approached by students who thanked him for his pick.
“They loved it,” he said. “They all stopped me and said, ‘Mr. Price, that book was really good.’”
The Hinds County School District has about 5,500 students and 425 teachers and covers half a dozen towns near Jackson, Miss. More than 21 percent of the general population in Hinds County lives under the poverty line, well above the national average, according to Data USA.
Mr. Price said that it was particularly critical to teach literacy at his school, where many children rely on free lunches or reduced-price meals.
“We have a lot of reluctant readers,” he said. “I am a firm believer that reluctant readers need the silly, funny books to hook them in.”
“I Need a New Butt!,” which was published in 2012, is marketed to children ages 4 to 8 and tells the story of a young boy who sets off to find a new behind after he sees a “crack” in his and fears it’s broken.
Mr. Price said that school administrators told him they were worried they would get complaints from parents about the subject matter.
When he was called into the superintendent’s office, he said that one of the administrators asked him, “Is this the kind of thing you find funny?”
Mr. Price replied, “Well, I did before I walked in here.”
He said he wanted only his job back so he could support his three children. His two eldest children — a daughter, 19, and a son, 18 — have severe autism.
“I’m tired. I’m stressed. I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “I need to work.”
But “mama I want a vagina” is okay I suppose
“I Need a New Butt!
Who hasn’t felt like that after an ass chewing by a senior commander or NCO?
He should have read a book about experimenting with a partner’s butt and all would’ve been well these days.
I said butt at the dinner table once and my uncle back handed me and said I had a potty mouth. (I was 6 or so and he didn’t actually hurt me.) It was just another word to me.
really? he hit you for saying BUTT. That’s a bit harsh IMHO.
There are tons like this. Captain Underpants, Dog Man and Bad Guys are some of them. When my grandkids brought them home I was a little shocked. They are full of potty and gross humor that elementary age kids usually engage in when parents are not around. They are written in a comic like format. Boys particularly enjoy them. It got the grandkids to start reading. Until they started reading these, they had little interest. We just made sure they knew this was not acceptable public behavior. They eventually outgrew that stage and moved on to more acceptable reading material.
I assume this is about introducing transism to 2nd graders. A new butt with a 2nd hole.
“In some more enlightened locations”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-vvFlqliI&ab_channel=PreschoolwithMs.Blair
There must be hundreds of classic books that 2nd graders would enjoy while being edified in character. It was an abuse of responsibility to pick one from the bottom of the barrel; a book that pokes fun at human anatomy in its grosser parts. It is as if educators are intent on being children themselves and making everything “fun” so that they can receive accolades. Teachers should take teaching seriously, and allow “fun” to be meted and measured, not the whole object of life.
I was always able to come up with a quick wise-crack when I was a schoolboy....
To be fair it wasn’t a real hit. He didn’t hurt me at all. The funny thing is the word butt (just a shortened version of buttocks) wasn’t unacceptable in our Ohio home. Uncle was a big lib visiting from California.
More dumb crap from leftist academia.
“I Need a New Butt!,” which was published in 2012, is marketed to children ages 4 to 8 and tells the story of a young boy who sets off to find a new behind after he sees a “crack” in his and fears it’s broken.
Mr. Price said that it was particularly critical to teach literacy at his school, where many children rely on free lunches or reduced-price meals.
These were the books read by many and influenced many generations that followed:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=horatio+alger
take a few moments and read one or point a young man there.
I heard of a Captain Underpants series of children's books before I heard about this book in the article.
Ms. Martin and the five-member school board did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Friday. But Mr. Price’s termination brought swift criticism from children’s authors and PEN America, a free speech organization that fights bans against books.
In my opinion it is totally inappropriate. Not only the word, but the implication of referring to the word itself.
Just because it has the word “butt” in the title doesn’t mean it’s an inappropriate book.
In my opinion it is totally inappropriate. Not only the word, but the implication of referring to the word itself.
In a letter to Mr. Price, the superintendent called the book “inappropriate.” She particularly took issue with the references to farting in the story and how “the book described butts in various colors, shapes and sizes (example: fireproof, bullet proof, bomb proof).” Ms. Martin called Mr. Price “unprofessional” for having selected the book.
We can all agree there was something BETTER to be read.
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